1. Field of the Invention
A present invention relates to a communication terminal capable of wireless LAN communication, and a method of searching for a base station that should be an access point, performed by the communication terminal.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, wireless LANs have become common as a means of connecting to the Internet. Such a wireless LAN is one type of LAN in which a network can be constituted without using a cable, for example, connectability with the Internet is achieved without a cable connection by wireless connection with a base station called an access point, from a communication terminal in which a wireless LAN module is installed. The base stations include, for example, an individual base station installed at a private residence, public base stations installed outdoors, and fee-based base stations provided by a service provider.
When radio wave conditions between a communication terminal and a current access point deteriorate during wireless LAN communication, the communication terminal searches for a new access point and continues the wireless LAN communication with the newly-searched access point.
However, the communication terminal cannot judge whether or not a base station that can be an access point exists in the vicinity, prior to searching for a new access point. Consequently, even in cases where, for example, no base station that can be an access point exists in the vicinity and searching is not needed, the communication terminal still performs searching for a new access point, resulting in problems of wasted processing time and wasted power consumption.
As a technique for suppressing power consumption in wireless LAN communication, for example, a technique where a communication terminal communicates with only pre-determined base stations is disclosed in the Japanese patent laid-open gazette 2005-12973. However, there is no known technique for suppressing power consumption focusing on searching for a new access point.